Stephen King

With sales of over 300 million copies of more than 70 books, plus dozens of stories adapted for film and television, Stephen King was the dominant American storyteller for over 25 years. While King wr...
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Acclaimed author Stephen King is set to make a cameo in the upcoming second season premiere of the TV adaptation of his novel Under The Dome. King will also write the episode. The series debuted in the U.S. last year (13) to record-breaking ratings.

HBO
The Internet has changed the spoilers game. No longer can you just avoid that one know-it-all dude at the office who always spills the beans. All of social media, your morning commute and text messages are a veritable minefield of spoilers waiting to ruin your day.
Now that Games of Thrones has become the cultural monolith it is today, it's even harder not to give things away if you've read the books or happened to be one of those people blessed with cable or access to HBO Go. With an ever-growing cast of characters, sub-plots and clans, the show does not always follow the book exactly in therein lies ample opportunity to reveal more than you bargained for. So in interest of keeping your friends and not acting like a smug GOT overlord, here are a few tips for all your GOT needs.
Avoid Leading Commentary
Group-watching popular TV shows is a fun, sociable activity that makes the episodes that much more enjoyable, until you spout off, "That's going to bite him in the ass later!" If your couch were the courtroom, this would be called "leading the witness." Being purposely vague is even worse: "So that's how they're going to play it," and even an innocuous "Hmmm," can get you in trouble. You don't need to be tight-lipped about everything, but perhaps it's time start your own screening night with fellow book enthusiasts.
Spare Your Social Media
Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was your entire social media circle able to consume the latest episode. With the entire Thrones-loving public crashing and slowing down HBO GO every Sunday, there's a good chance that not everyone got the latest gruesome death scene or flaying incident. News sites are the most guilty of this – because well – it's their job to produce clickbait and instant recaps, but that doesn't mean you have share it or create your own impaling GIF. Despite what Stephen King says, some people purposely avoid reading the books so they can still enjoy the twists, turns and surprises on the show.
Provide More Questions Than Answers
Despite being the spoiler-free, responsible, fantasy-fiction enthusiast that you are, there will always be people who want to get an idea of where the show is headed, against their better judgment. For every person who asks you, "What happens to the Starks," simply respond, "What doesn't happen to the Starks?" Or when they ask, "What's the deal with that sociopath from the Misfits who has a fetish for torturing Mick Jagger? Tell them, Ramsay Snow is a special snowflake with daddy issues and time is a flat circle, and they'll stop listening and divert their attention back to Cersei and Tywin Lannister vacationing together and making duck faces on Instagram.

Drew Altizer/WENN
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are moving their reign of violence and terror from Westeros to the US. The Game of Thrones show runners have signed on to write and direct Dirty White Boys, an adaptation of the novel by Stephen Hunter. The story follows three escaped convicts — Lamar Pye, who fled prison after killing a fellow inmate, his mentally disabled cousin, Odell, and an artist-turned-felon, Richard — as they travel across the Southern states in an attempt to escape from the state troopers. They hide out with a convict groupie, who killed her parents as a teenager, and form a twisted family as they embark on a journey filled with mishaps and misfortune.
The pair currently has no timeline for getting Dirty White Boys onto the big screen, as they're busy focusing on the "52-week" job that is Game of Thrones. While some fans might be upset about any project that takes Weiss and Benioff's attention away from the show, they should have nothing to worry about, seeing as Dirty White Boys is essentially Game of Thrones, if the show took place in the Southern US. In fact, the two projects are so similar that it's hard not to picture characters from the Seven Kingdoms when reading the film's summary...
Lamar Pye is Jaquen H'gar!Jaquen might not be the most prominent character in the series, but he did give us the show's unofficial motto: Valar Morghulis, or All Men Must Die. Like Lamar, he's a career criminal with a reputation for violence and leads a gang of dangerous, hardened baddies. He also escaped from captivity (with the help of Arya Stark) in order to avoid a life-threatening situation, he's on the run from the authorities, and he's willing to kill all of the people who stand in his way on his journey to freedom. While Lamar is dedicated to protecting Odell, Jaquen is indebted to Arya, and kills the people she asks him to. It's like Hunter subtracted Jacquen's powers, gave him a new name, and decided to write a novel about him.
Odell is Hodor! In Dirty White Boys, Odell is Lamar's cousin, a phsyically strong but mentally disabled man who escaped an abusive family with Lamar's help. Lamar now takes care of and protects Odell, and they are unfailingly loyal to each other. In Game of Thrones, Hodor is the Stark family's stable hand, a physically strong but mentally disabled man who helped Bran and Rickon escape when Winterfell was burned. He carries Bran around on his back and protects him, and they are unfailingly loyal to each other. Basically, the only difference between these two is the size of their vocabularies.
Richard Peed is Gendry!These two have a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Richard is a reserved, talented artist who is capable of great violence, but mostly tags along on Lamar's adventure in order to keep his protection. Gendry is a quiet, talented blacksmith who is forced to travel with Arya after he is kicked out of his apprenticeship in King's Landing and he is no longer protected by the king. Although he's more interested in crafting swords than fighting with them, Gendry doesn't shy away from violence if he needs to protect his friends, and just like Richard ends up in a gang of misfits, so does Gendry, tagging along with Arya and Lommy Greenhands before joining the Brotherhood Without Banners.
Ruta Beth Tull is Melisandre!If Ruta Beth has a love of the color red, these two are a match made in heaven. Ruta's a "convict groupie," who writes letters to Richard describing what she believes to be their cosmic connection and attempting to bond over the fact that she murdered her parents. If there's any character in Game of Thrones who believes in having a cosmic or spiritual connection with someone, it's the Red Priestess herself, Melisandre. She believes that only she understands Stannis and his power, and that only she can help him win the Iron Throne, and she proves her loyalty by giving birth to a Shadow Demon that kills Renly. Their girls' nights would be terrifyingly entertaining.
Bud Pewtie is Robb Stark!An honorable but flawed man, who is courageous and determined to do what is right? He can only be a Stark. In this case, Bud Pewtie, the state trooper who is on the hunt for Lamar and his buddies, is the Dirty White Boys version of Robb Stark, the former King in the North. Both men are good at heart, and strive for justice. Both men are confused about the paths they've chosen in life. And both men have terrible taste in women: for Robb it was Talisa/Jeyne Westerling, who he impulsively marries despite already being betrothed to a Frey girl, and for Bed it's Holly, the wife of his partner Ted. Let's hope Bud isn't going to a wedding any time soon.
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Comedy Central
We’ve been watching Stephen Colbert for years now — for eight years on The Daily Show and the past nine on The Report. We’ve seen him mold the jingoistic dork who bears his name into an icon of modern satire, skewering current events and lampooning punditry five nights a week for just shy of a decade. We’ve seen Colbert degrade the English language, vie for immortality in the form of a Hungarian bridge, forward the movement against wrist violence, run for president, wrestle Jon Stewart at the 2012 Emmys, and inspire a delightful grouchiness in childhood author Maurice Sendak. We’ve seen lots of Stephen Colbert. But we really have no idea what he’s like.
But this man that we’ve yet to meet, save for rare candid interviews or pre-shtick recordings we might be lucky enough to have found on the web, seems to be the one we'll be spending the rest of our days with. Naturally, Colbert’s new residence on The Late Show, announced on Thursday via The New York Times, won’t foster this degree of caricature. As such, it’s natural for fans of the Colbert Report, even (or perhaps especially) the most diehard of the bunch, to approach the news of the comedian’s ascension to network TV with apprehension. We don’t know what he can do without the good graces of his O’Reilly-inspired alter ego. We’re not sure what a genuine Stephen Colbert interview will carry — when he’s not belittling, accosting, or deliberately misunderstanding his guests, can he still be funny?
We'll have to wait until 2015 for a proper answer to this first question, although we're comfortable with a resounding "probably." But in mourning the impending loss of The Colbert Report's main character, we have to take a look at his fellow late night players, and the game itself. In earnest, Colbert is the only one of the lot who has been working from the soils of true fiction, but the industry entails some degree of trimming and hedging. The cameras add 10 pounds of performative composure and well-rehearsed shtick, and the good ones keep their elements as vivid as Colbert has his Bill O'Reilly sendup.
So the second question is: which of these greats will show Colbert how to handle the balance of his Comedy Central icon and the South Carolinian who pronounces his last name with an audible "T"?
Gone by the wayside since Johnny Carson's retirement is the viewing audience's adherence to the "familial" in its crowning of a replacement late night king. With a long line from which to choose, we want characters. Maybe Jay Leno held good ratings thanks to his ability to play accessible and nonthreatening, but in the days of Internet criticism, professional and public alike, that translates to amorphous. There's no Jay Leno identity beyond the high-voiced bobblehead you'll find in too many stand-up comedy routines. Leno and his ilk have fallen to the new. We want the opportunity to dig through a collection of oddballs each night, satisfying whatever cravings the preceding hours have inspired.
We have that opportunity in David Letterman's crotchety cynic (who has always been, as a cultural fixture, far ahead of his time). In Jimmy Fallon's wide-eyed cherub. In Jon Stewart's put-upon nebbish. These are the characters these men have built, accessing something between relatability — face it, angrier people like Letterman and happier people like Fallon — and the special, distanced elation you get from watching a skilled actor work his comedic magic.
With so many balancing acts of varying aptitude — Chelsea Handler plays on sauciness, Jimmy Kimmel on boyish impetulance, Craig Ferguson on the residual mania of his dark past — Colbert has no shortage of professors to guide him through his early semesters in the CBS gig. But the best teacher of the lot to help Colbert tailor his character to the network form might very well be Conan O'Brien, who has managed from Late Night on to manufacture a most meticulous exaggeration of his gawky, psuedo-psychotic personality to maintain through bits, interviews, man-on-the-street routines, and even appearances in other media. It's really a shame he didn't get tenure.
It's natural to bemoan the loss of a character as important as Colbert's, or to fear that his greatness might not carry over to a new style of performance. But we have to remember that even in taking the stage as himself, performance is the most essential part of his new job. He might not bluster about as the right-wing blowhard we've come to love, but he sure as hell won't let his penchant for character craft and self-parody go untapped. He'll need it now more than ever.
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"Congratulations to Stephen Colbert for succeeding David Letterman. He should be terrific!" Veteran broadcaster Larry King celebrates the news that comedian Colbert will take over as the host of America's the Late Show once Letterman retires next year (15).

Veteran singer/songwriter Carole King stunned the cast of Broadway show Beautiful on Thursday night (03Apr14) by taking to the stage during the curtain call. The castmembers of the production, which is based on King's life and music, were taking their final bow at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in New York City on Thursday when the star herself joined them on stage, much to their surprise.
King was given a standing ovation by the audience and performed her classic song, You've got a Friend.
The appearance comes after King previously insisted she would not watch the show, even walking out halfway through a cast read-through.
Her daughter Sherry Kondor previously told Playbill.com, "She came to a reading and lasted halfway through. She said 'I have to go.' I said, 'You're just going? What do I tell all these people?' She said, 'Tell them it's great. I can tell it's great. But I can't watch my life played out before me.'"

Artisan Entertainment via Everett Collection
We hate to break it to you, but The Grand Budapest Hotel is actually an early 20th century German department store. But don't let that bit of fictionalization kill the dream of a vacation inspired by your favorite film. These real-life accommodations set the stage for movie murder, plotting, and romance, and are a must for a cinephile's perfect getaway.
Mountain Lake Lodge — Dirty Dancing
Pembroke, Virginia's Mountain Lake Lodge played the role of Catskills resort Kellerman's in the '80s classic. Guests can even choose to book a special Dirty Dancing weekend with dance lessons, a trivia contest, and a scene-specific tour of the grounds. Transformational first love not guaranteed.
Safari Inn — True Romance
When you're in Los Angeles, follow in the footsteps of Clarence and Alabama and hole up in the '50s-fabulous Safari Inn. The motel and its famous neon sign have also appeared in movies like Apollo 13, as well as on TV in Six Feet Under, Monk, and more.
Beverly Wilshire Hotel — Pretty Woman
Those with deep pockets (or "uncles" with deep pockets) can relive Vivian's fairy tale in the extravagant Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire. The famous shops of Rodeo Drive are handy for any necessary revenge shopping sprees.
Timberline Lodge — The Shining
Guests at the Timberline Lodge in Oregon don't usually lose their minds during their stay; they prefer to hit the slopes. The exterior we know as the creepy Overlook Hotel is actually a National Historic Landmark and famous ski destination that was built during the '30s as a part of the Works Projects Administration.
The Stanley Hotel — Dumb and Dumber
If you've got a briefcase full of cash and a best friend who's as clueless as you are, Colorado's Stanley Hotel is the place for you. Stumble up the magnificent staircase or have a drink in the hotel bar where Lloyd Christmas first realizes that we made it to the moon. Bonus movie cred: Stephen King conceived the idea for The Shining when staying at The Stanley, which is considered by many to be haunted. It took over the part of the Overlook in the TV miniseries adaptation.
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HBO
With True Detective finally wrapping up its mystery and the McConaissance officially complete, it's time to turn our attention to some new cable offerings, ones that will keep us just as enthralled and confused as we were every time Rust Cohle opened his mouth to speak. Since right now everyone's more interested in what's on cable than what's playing in theaters, HBO and Cinemax have capitalized on that by releasing trailers for all of the original and returning programs that will keep people glued to their televisions through the summer. But with so many trailers dropping at once, it can be hard to tell your mini series from your TV movies and your realistic political comedies from your fantasy political dramas, and so we've rounded up all of the big trailers in one handy post, along with everything you need to know in order to get excited about them. Although, not even we can keep straight how everyone on Game of Thrones is related, so you're on your own with that one.
Doll and Em
What to Expect: Created and written by Emily Mortimer and Dolly Wells, the show follows fictional versions of themselves as they attempt to balance work and friendship after Em hires Doll to be her personal assistant. Based on the trailer, it seems like the show will have the strong female characters and emphasis on friendship that Girls does, but with some of the "glamour" and showbusiness antics of Extras. Most Exciting Parts of the Trailer: Well-tailored jumpsuits. Condescending assistants. Driving mishaps. Awkward hot tub confessions. Friendship. Matching blazers. The Big Question: Now that The Newsroom is ending, will Jeff Daniels make an appearance? How about Dev Patel? He's British, it could work!When It Premieres: March 19 at 10 PM on HBO.
Game of Thrones
What We'll See This Season: Now that we've all finally recovered from the Red Wedding, we can celebrate with the Purple Wedding, between everyone's favorite tiny monarch King Joffrey and Margaery Tyrell, which we're sure will have no complications whatsoever. Meanwhile, Sansa is still attempting to escape from King's Landing and the Lannisters' abuse, Stannis Baratheon is still desperately attempting to seize the Iron Throne, Jamie Lannister finds his loyalty torn between Brienne and Cersei, the Wall is still under attack from the Wildlings, placing Jon Snow in the the middle of the chaos, and Daenerys now has three dragons and a massive army. Basically, everyone is going to die. Most Exciting Parts of This Trailer: Dragons. Sword fights. Revenge. Dragons. Catapults. Battle. Murder. Dragons. Dramatic sword-grasping. Ambition. Samwell Tarly. Dragons. The Big Question: Are the White Walkers still a part of this show, or have we just abandoned that plot completely? When It Premieres: April 6 at 9 PM on HBO.
Silicon Valley
What to Expect: Created by the writer and director of Office Space, Mike Judge, the show follows six computer programmers who are determined to make their mark in Silicon Valley by launching their own start up, even though they have no business acumen, charisma or social skills. The cast is made up of a group of experienced comedians and actors including Thomas Middleditch, T.J. Miller, Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr, Josh Brener and Zach Woods, which means that Judge's weird, irreverent brand of humor should be translated magnificently onscreen. Most Exciting Parts of This Trailer: Computer programming. Anecdotes about meeting the pesident. Bike-throwing. Black turtlenecks. The Big Question: Which is the more appropriate analogy: punk rock or free-form jazz? When It Premieres: April 6 at 10 PM on HBO.
Veep
What We'll See This Season: The president has announced that he's not planning to run for re-election, leaving the door to the Oval Office wide open for Selina Meyers, so she launches a PR campaign that includes a ghostwritten memoir and some new staff members. But since everything in her office tends to fall apart, we're sure that the road to the White House will be paved with mis-steps and disasters. Luckily, Jonah's still hanging around, waiting to be abused, so at least Selina has someone to take her aggression out on. Most Exciting Parts of This Trailer: "I would rather be shot in the face than serve as Vice President again." Oh, Selina. How we've missed you. The Big Question: Who's getting fired (and then rehired and then fired again and then probably re-rehired) this season?When It Premieres: April 6 at 10:30PM on HBO.
The Normal Heart
What to Expect: Based on the Tony Award-winning play by Larry Kramer, and directed by Ryan Murphy, The Normal Heart tells the story of the struggle that gay activists went through at the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the early 1980s, and their attempts to raise awareness and assistance from a community that wanted to ignore them. Mark Ruffalo will star as Ned Weeks, the activist spearheading the campaign for HIV/AIDS awareness, with Matt Bomer, Taylor Kitsch, Julia Roberts, and Jim Parsons in supporting roles. Needless to say, this one's going to be a tearjerker. The Most Exciting Parts of This Trailer: Mark Ruffalo's dramatic gravitas. Denis O'Hare as the dismissive, vaguely-Southern mayor. Blonde Taylor Kitsch. Background music that sounds like someone made Enya into a choir. The Big Question: How many Golden Globes will this inevitably win?When It Premieres: May 25 at 9 PM on HBO.
The Knick
What to Expect: Set in New York in the 1900s and directed by Stephen Soderbergh, the show follows the work and lives of the staff of the Knickerbocker hospital, including Clive Owen's Dr. John Thackeray. Think Grey's Anatomy, but with less anesthesia and proper hygiene requirements and more gore. Probably the same amount of illicit affairs, though - this is Soderbergh we're talking about. Most Exciting Parts of This Trailer: Blood. Long shots of old-fashioned hospital beds. Blood. Clive Owen's tiny moustache. Blood. Soderbergh FINALLY comes out of retirement! The Big Question: How many vivid nightmares are the scenes of turn-of-the-century surgical procedures going to inspire? When It Premieres: This summer on Cinemax.
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DreamWorks
For the bulk of every Rocky and Bullwinkle episode, moose and squirrel would engage in high concept escapades that satirized geopolitics, contemporary cinema, and the very fabrics of the human condition. With all of that to work with, there's no excuse for why the pair and their Soviet nemeses haven't gotten a decent movie adaptation. But the ingenious Mr. Peabody and his faithful boy Sherman are another story, intercut between Rocky and Bullwinkle segments to teach kids brief history lessons and toss in a nearly lethal dose of puns. Their stories and relationship were much simpler, which means that bringing their shtick to the big screen would entail a lot more invention — always risky when you're dealing with precious material.
For the most part, Mr. Peabody &amp; Sherman handles the regeneration of its heroes aptly, allowing for emotionally substance in their unique father-son relationship and all the difficulties inherent therein. The story is no subtle metaphor for the difficulties surrounding gay adoption, with society decreeing that a dog, no matter how hyper-intelligent, cannot be a suitable father. The central plot has Peabody hosting a party for a disapproving child services agent and the parents of a young girl with whom 7-year-old Sherman had a schoolyard spat, all in order to prove himself a suitable dad. Of course, the WABAC comes into play when the tots take it for a spin, forcing Peabody to rush to their rescue.
Getting down to personals, we also see the left brain-heavy Peabody struggle with being father Sherman deserves. The bulk of the emotional marks are hit as we learn just how much Peabody cares for Sherman, and just how hard it has been to accept that his only family is growing up and changing.
DreamWorks
But more successful than the new is the film's handling of the old — the material that Peabody and Sherman purists will adore. They travel back in time via the WABAC Machine to Ancient Egypt, the Renaissance, and the Trojan War, and 18th Century France, explaining the cultural backdrop and historical significance of the settings and characters they happen upon, all with that irreverent (but no longer racist) flare that the old cartoons enjoyed. And oh... the puns.
Mr. Peabody &amp; Sherman is a f**king treasure trove of some of the most amazingly bad puns in recent cinema. This effort alone will leave you in awe.
The film does unravel in its final act, bringing the science-fiction of time travel a little too close to the forefront and dropping the ball on a good deal of its emotional groundwork. What seemed to be substantial building blocks do not pay off in the way we might, as scholars of animated family cinema, have anticipated, leaving the movie with an unfinished feeling.
But all in all, it's a bright, compassionate, reasonably educational, and occasionally funny if not altogether worthy tribute to an old favorite. And since we don't have our own WABAC machine to return to a time of regularly scheduled Peabody and Sherman cartoons, this will do okay for now.
If nothing else, it's worth your time for the puns.
3/5
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Summary

With sales of over 300 million copies of more than 70 books, plus dozens of stories adapted for film and television, Stephen King was the dominant American storyteller for over 25 years. While King wrote in a wide variety of genres, from the coming-of-age short story <i>The Body</i> (1982) to the psychological thriller <i>Misery</i> (1987), King was most closely associated with horror and fantasy stories with supernatural elements. A great storyteller with an eye for detail and an accessible narrative tone, King always grounded his fantastic elements in recognizable environments, while his demons often highlighted the rocky emotional dynamics of families and the ravages of dysfunction and addiction. Cultural critic Robin Wood once concluded that "The horrors of the King world are the horrors of our culture writ large, made visible and inescapable." With this curious but huge appeal, the name Stephen King became a powerful brand that sold books and film tickets, even though his name attachment to a film was hardly a guarantee of a good movie. Among the best King-based feature films were Brian De Palma's "Carrie" (1976), David Cronenberg's "The Dead Zone" (1983), Rob Reiner's "Stand by Me" (1986), Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" (1980), which took more liberties than King was happy with, and Frank Darabont's "The Shawshank Redemption" (1995). The prolific writer's output diminished somewhat following serious injuries he sustained in a 1999 roadside accident, but just as throughout his career, every new novel was highly anticipated, topped the bestseller lists, and usually found its way to the screen as a feature film or television miniseries that drew consistently strong audiences.

Raised King and his adopted older brother David by herself; died of cancer in 1973

Naomi King

Daughter

Born c. 1970; mother, Tabitha King

David King

Brother

Adopted; born c. 1945

Education

Name

University of Maine, Orono

Notes

His official website is located at www.stephenking.com

King used the pseudonym Richard Bachman for six novels: "Rage," "The Long Walk," "Roadwork," "The Running Man," "Thinner" and "The Regulators." The latter was publicized as a "lost novel" by the author who "died of cancer of the pseudonym" in 1985.

The late Tom Allen stated the opinion of many King fans regarding Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson's somewhat peverse adaptation of "The Shining" in a review entitled "Hatchet Job" in a June 1980 issue of Village Voice: "What is clear is that the novel's 'credible' explanations have been ripped out. These include Jack's psychological weaknesses and his susceptibility to evil suggestion; Wendy's crucial lack of trust; Danny's special gift for intuiting danger AND acting upon it; and (How could it be ignored?) the Overlook's lust to add Danny's second sight, his 'shining' to its powers."

"Somewhere in the early days, before anyone much had heard of him, King reached the conscious decision to modify his writing style, so as to make money. And this has had startling if in a sense imponderable consequences."

"There was a time when Stephen King had a style significantly different from any style he uses today. Because there is more to it than there would be in the case of the average or even merely extraordinary writer, for whom style is a matter of word choice. For Stephen King, the over-riding factor in his "style" is a matter of plot choice - the words follow from the choice of plot, since he has about six radically different plots, six more or less different sets of word choices." - From "Stephen King" by Algis Budrys in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 1990

"One is bowled over by Stephen King's prodigious capacity to milk every situation for its dramatic possibilities, by his ability to line up vast landscapes of dominoes whose toppling will concatenate catastrophically, and by his sheer inventive energy." - Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in his The New York Times review of "Needful Things" Oct. 3, 1991

"King has a remarkable eye and feeling for the lives of ordinary Americans and the places they live. They're the people you might see buying a McDonald's hamburger, or at a local baseball game, or your neighborhood hardware store. And indeed, that's a key to understanding King's way. He has carried on what Ray Bradbury pioneered: his stories are about identifiable people whose lives are altered by paranormal events and forces. His characters and their worlds ring uncannily right, and he involves one intensely in their predicaments." - Kirby McCauley, editor of "Dark Forces" New York: The Viking Press, 1980

"... [novelist Michelle Slung in a positive review of King's work in The New Republic] has a point when she touches on the propensity of a small but influential element of the literary establishment to ghettoize horror and fantasy and instantly relegate them beyond the pale of so-called serious literature. I'm sure those critics' nineteenth-century precursors would have contemptuously dismissed Poe as the great American hack." - Stephen King in a 1983 Playboy interview reprinted in "Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror with Stephen King", Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller, Editors

"... The problem goes beyond my particular genre. That little elite which is clustered in the literary magazines and book-review sections of influential newspapers and magazines on both coasts, assumes that ALL popular literature must also, by definition, be bad literature. Those criticisms are not really against bad writing; they're against an entire type of writing. MY type of writing, as it turns out. Those avatars of high culture hold it almost as an article of religious faith that plot and story must be subordinated to style, whereas my deeply held conviction is that story must be paramount, because it defines the entire work of fiction. All other considerations are secondary - theme, mood, even characterization and language." - Stephen King in Playboy 1983

"Most of all, I think that trapped inside King is one of the finest writers of our time. I think he understands that, though he be wrong about when and where that writer emerges, and he may or, more likely, may not, understand what he gave up in order to be a moneymaker on this gigantic scale. Most of all, I think he has done an almost unthinkable thing; he has not narrowed down, but rather has expanded the definition of what he is as a writer, to the point where he can say, as no one else can, that he has tried everything, and made it work in some sense." - From "Stephen King" by Algis Budrys in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 1990

King was a judge of the 1977 World Fantasy Awards

King was guest of Honor of the World Fantasy Convention at Providence, RI in 1979

King was recipient of the Career Alumni Award from the University of Maine